How can Custom Orthotics

By Scott Gormley

Orthotics or Insoles as they are sometime referred to, are inserts placed into the base of a shoe to help reduce the stress on joints. Many shoe manufacturers produce flat unsupportive shoes that don’t aid or support our joints. Whilst NHS England is rightly recommending that we should be aiming to achieve 10,000 steps per day, for some feet, knees, hips and spines this isn’t comfortable.

Shoe manufacturers have made a range of changes to shoes in the last few years designing ‘supportive’ ‘stabilising’ ‘pronating’ footwear. Although these may suit some people, because they are still a generic shoe, we often find patients aren’t getting the support they think they are. Ultimately, although the shoe may be better than a neutral shoe, it’s not enough to correct their specific problem.

The difficulty with feet is there are no pair the same, we do stock a basic off the shelf insole, but we find much more successful results with custom made pairs. For many of our clients we find that they once wore insoles, then just one day stopped wearing them. This is a common theme, they often come to our clinic with knee or back pain, and we trace this